Staff and Steering Committee

Steering Committee

The Steering committee meets once a month, on the second Monday of the month. Members serve two years. Meetings are open to the public. Please call the office, 610-691-8730, with questions, concerns, & interest.

Olivia Arena Miller of Cooperburg has been involved in LEPOCO activities for over 15 years — having participated in demonstrations against the Iraq War as a high school student. Olivia has participated in Peace Camp as a camper, helper and treasured group leader. She attended United Friends School and at age eighteen lived in Brasil for a year as an exchange student. She has lived in Spain and Portugal working in hostels and tourism. She works as a child care provider, animal and house sitter, and leader of foreign exchange student tours in the U.S. Olivia is an animal rights activist and proud vegan for over six years.

Terry Briscoe of Bethlehem is coordinator of Pax Christi Lehigh Valley, part of the international Catholic peace organization. He is a long-time member of LEPOCO and was a leader in the L.V. Peace Coalition when it was active, 2002 to 2010. Retired from Bethlehem Steel, he and Sylvia have four children and nine grandchildren. In his two terms on the Steering Committee he has been active in dealing with staff issues and in organizing delegations to meet with local elected representatives.

Nancy Johnston of Easton arrived in the Lehigh Valley from West Virginia in the 1970s. She is a Quaker and has been involved in Peace Camp for 25 years. She is known for teaching children how to hug trees and love the environment — her own home having been certified as a National Wildlife Backyard Habitat. She participates in the Peace Pilgrimage and has been with the Peace Singers for five years. She has been an Associate Professor in the Nursing Department at Cedar Crest College for 20 years.

Tom Stinnettof Riegelsville will continue serving as co-treasurer, a role he has filled recently since 2009, and which he also filled as solo treasurer from 1974-1983. A mechanical engineer he is mostly retired from his work in the biotechnology equipment field. He has served as president of Riegelsville Borough Council for many years and is married to LEPOCO staff-person, Nancy Tate. He has been active in many aspects of LEPOCO’s work since

Julius Iwantsch of Bethlehem has been a LEPOCO member since the mid-1970s. He works as a design draftsperson, working mainly with municipal clients. His interests include questioning U.S. military involvement around the world, military service alternatives for young people, and bringing this country’s reputation up to what it should be — through change. He enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, and home renovations. He has been co-treasurer for over a decade.

Dan Millerof Coopersburg has been a member of LEPOCO for over 20 years. Dan and his family have been mainstays of Peace Camp since the 1990s — Dan and Ronnie Arena (his wife) as leaders and helpers, and their three young adult daughters were first campers and now are also leaders and helpers. In 1977, Dan co-founded the Perkiomen Valley Academy, a private day treatment program servicing Montgomery County young people and their families. He worked at this alternative school for disadvantaged and emotionally disturbed teenagers for 35 years. Dan is a beekeeper and has coached youth sports for over 20 years. This will be his third term on the Steering Committee.

Janet Neyof Allentown has served as an at-large Steering Committee member for over ten years. She has been facilitating the Annual Dinner for many years, and is sometimes able to sing with the LEPOCO Peace Singers. She previously served on the National Committee of the War Resisters League for several years. Janet is employed by the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, having worked for the organization for over 30 years. She is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Allentown and volunteers for the Presbytery of Lehigh.

Jim Orben of Springtown has been a LEPOCO member since the Vietnam era. He is retired from his work in the environmental field on pollution control and testing facilities for various companies. A Quaker, he has been active with the Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting for three decades. He has been active with the Cooks Creek Watershed Association for almost 40 years. He and his wife Debbie live on a rural homestead (with garden and orchard) near Springtown. He is an avid biker, skier, runner, hiker, golfer. In his first term on the Steering Committee he has been especially helpful in LEPOCO’s opposition to the PennEast Pipeline. He is a regular helper at Peace Camp and with the Annual Dinner.

Scott Slingerland of Easton has been involved in LEPOCO for more than five years. He has been the bike route expert for the LEPOCO Peaceathon (formerly known as the Bike/Walkathon) for several years and participated in other events. He works for the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation and teaches yoga with Shanthi Project at Northampton County Prison and for other underserved populations. He previously worked for 12 years as a combustion engineer for power plants, designing emission control systems. This will be his second term on the Steering Committee.

Join this regular last Saturday of the month witness against the U.S. military’s Horsham Drone Command Center, an integral part of the expanding domestic network of drone bases, training sites and command centers. See brandywinepeace.com for[...]